Guest opinion: Help Africatown to begin atoning for our past
This is a guest opinion column
An open letter to our elected officials:
I have been following the story of Africatown since we moved to Mobile in 2004 and am delighted with the progress that has been made in the restoration of that community since the recent discovery of the Clotilda. However, as you know, there remains much work to be done.
As I learn more about the history of Africatown, some of it horrific and some of it inspiring, I find myself grieving for the great injustice that has been done over the years to that community, and for the opportunity that lies before us all now to make it right.
I know that there are many persons who are complicit in what happened in Africatown—-Captain Foster, the Meaher family, multiple owners of industries who have polluted the air and water in Africatown, the government officials who permitted that to happen over the years, and society at large that turned a blind eye to the building of freeways through neighborhoods, inequities of opportunity, and subsequent blight and poverty. Some may say it doesn’t serve any good purpose to rehash all that, I suppose. But healing always begins with acknowledgement of wrong and the sincere desire to make it right.
It is my deeply held belief that the citizens of greater Mobile have a lot to gain by being on the right side of history this time. We should support every effort of the Mobile County Training School Alumni Association, Africatown Community Development Corporation, Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation, CHESS, Africatown Redevelopment Corporation, the Clotilda Descendants Association, and other organizations like VETS (Visualizing Everyone That Serves) to restore and rebirth Plateau/Africatown into a beautiful, strong, and vibrant community.
I ask you as my elected officials to allocate time, energy, funds, man hours, and whatever is needed to clean up the community, rebuild homes and businesses, relocate industry, clean up industrial waste, create parks and walkable neighborhoods, construct memorials, museums, and interpretive sites. Do it not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because it will be a huge economic engine not only for Africatown, but for the entire Mobile community. Do it to begin to atone for our past and bring healing to ourselves and the citizens who suffered this horrible injustice in our midst.
I personally am willing to make donations and volunteer in any way I can to help the citizens of Africatown and descendants of the Clotilda rebuild their community, and I have no doubt that there are many like me in Mobile. Will you help us do the right thing?
Rhoda Vanderhart moved to Mobile from Kansas City in 2004 (born in Phoenix and grew up on a farm in Nebraska). She works as a nurse in a local hospital, attends Open Table United Church of Christ, and is a part of the Mobile County Community Remembrance Project.
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